I’ve not recommended anyone, says Vilasrao
Union minister Vilasrao Deshmukh on Sunday said that he had not recommended any case for membership of the controversial Adarsh Housing Society and that allegations in this regard were a “conspiracy to defame” him.
“I had not recommended anybody’s case. There is nobody in the society who can claim to be my relative or near and dear one... This appears to be a conspiracy to defame me,” Mr Deshmukh, a former Maharashtra chief minister, said.
Mr Deshmukh said that he did approve the Letter of Intent (LoI) of 20 people who wanted to become members of the society. But he did so after a recommendation was allegedly made by Mr Ashok Chavan, the then state revenue minister. “The list had come for my approval only for counter signature and you do it in good faith,” he said.
Mr Deshmukh’s statement comes in the wake of reports that three of his aides also own flats in the society.
Meanwhile in Mumbai, Maharashtra energy minister Ajit Pawar on Sunday denied any involvement in the scam and said he has not recommended anyone’s name for the membership in the society. “Show me even one person who is either a relative or someone I know who is a member of the society,” Mr Pawar, nephew of NCP chief Sharad Pawar, said. “I have not recommended anyone’s name for membership,” the minister said.
Union power minister Sushilkumar Shinde, whose name is doing rounds as among Mr Ashok Chavan’s likely successors as chief minister, on Sunday said: “Nothing much was happening in Delhi on the Adarsh front.” “Nothing much is happening. It is only the newspapers who are making a hue and cry,” Mr Shinde said on arrival here on Sunday afternoon.
Revenue minister Narayan Rane also refuted reports that he had anything to do in allocation of a flat to a member of the society considered close to him.
Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan is in the eye of a storm after names of his relatives appeared among the beneficiaries.
A controversy has erupted over how Adarsh Housing Society, originally meant to be a six-storey structure to house Kargil war heroes and widows, got converted into a 31-storey tower through the collusion of bureaucrats, politicians and top defence officers.
Post new comment